Grindhouse Theater: Never a Tender Moment (1979)

The history of "Never a Tender Moment" is as grainy and faded as the few existing copies of this rare BDSM themed hardcore short. It was produced in 1979 at the O'Farrell Theater in San Francisco by Cinema 7, the Mitchell Brothers' film company. It was shot in the theater's "Ultra Room" and featured Marilyn discussing various bondage delights followed by scenes of intense kink, including a notable upside down bondage scene. The short was only available through direct mail order from the Mitchell Brothers and was likely available on 8MM and/or 16MM film first before being converted to VHS.

At the time, Marilyn Chambers usually appeared in live sex shows and this is one of them. It is considered an all-time underground classic and features Erica Boyer (billed as Carol Christy) in her first pornographic film.

grind

A grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly shows exploitation films. It is named after the defunct burlesque theaters located on 42nd Street in New York City, where 'bump n' grind' dancing and striptease were featured.

In the film Lady of Burlesque (1943) one of the characters refers to the burlesque theatre on 42nd Street, where they are performing stripteases and bump and grind dances, as a "grindhouse".

The introduction of television greatly eroded the audience for local and single screen movie theatres, many of which were built during the cinema boom of the 1930s. In combination with urban decay after white flight out of older city areas in the mid to late 1960s, changing economics forced these theatres to either close or offer something that TV could not. In the 1970s these theatres were put to new use as venues for exploitation films, either adult pornography and sleaze, or slasher and dubbed martial arts films from Hong Kong.

Grindhouse films characteristically contain large amounts of sex, violence or bizarre subject matter. One genre of film featured were "roughies" or sexploitation, a mix of sex, violence and sadism. Quality varied, but low budget production values and poor print quality were common. Critical opinions varied regarding typical grindhouse fare, but many films acquired cult following and critical praise. Double, triple, and "all night" bills on a single admission charge often encouraged patrons to spend long periods of time in the theaters. The milieu was largely and faithfully captured at the time by the magazine Sleazoid Express.

By the 1980s, home video and cable movie channels threatened to render the grindhouse obsolete. By the end of the decade, these theaters had vanished from Los Angeles's Broadway and Hollywood Boulevard, New York City's Times Square and San Francisco's Market Street. By the mid 1990s, these particular theaters had all but disappeared from the US. Very few exist today.